For as long as history has been recorded, animals have featured in art. Cave paintings dating back to around 15,000 BC at sites like Lascaux, are vivid depictions of scenes of hunting and foraging, and show human fascination with the animal kingdom. The world’s oldest cave painting, discovered recently in Indonesia, is also a portrait of an animal – the wild boar.


Bulls in the Lascaux Caves from 15,000 BCE (left) and Sulawesi warty pig in Indonesia from 45,000 years ago (right).Bulls in the Lascaux Caves from 15,000 BCE (left) and Sulawesi warty pig in Indonesia from 45,000 years ago (right).

Bulls in the Lascaux Caves from 15,000 BCE (left) and Sulawesi warty pig in Indonesia from 45,000 years ago (right).


In modern times too, the timeless obsession with painting animals continues. At the mecca of all art museums – the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) – in New York, animals hold a special place. A quick search for a list of animals that feature in artworks on display at the museum, shows that cats dominate artists’ imagination. The feline features prominently in over 2,600 art pieces, more than the paintings of lions and horses combined.


In 2020, Met made details of over 470,000 artworks in their collection publicly accessible through an API, along with high-resolution images of the works. Not everything is on display at any given point in time. But 10% of the cat art currently available in the museum for viewing is considered as a highlight, attracting many art lovers. Among the famous cat artworks at The Met are Francisco Goya’s Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zúñiga, on display; and Morris Hirshfield’s Angora Cat, currently not on display. Below is a snippet of a single data dictionary for a Met cat:

# Loading libraries
import requests
import json
import pandas as pd
import pprint
import time

# Get objectID for all cats on display at MET:
url = "https://collectionapi.metmuseum.org/public/collection/v1/search?isOnView=true&q=cats"
response  = requests.get(url)
cats = response.json()

# Showing results for first 10 here:
cats["objectIDs"] = cats["objectIDs"][:9]

# Generate cat urls and store them in a list
all = []
for each in cats["objectIDs"]:
    each = str(each)
    url = "https://collectionapi.metmuseum.org/public/collection/v1/objects/"  + each
    #print(url)
    all.append(url)
    
# Loop through the urls and make calls to get data using the API
cat_responses = []
count = 0

# Fetch the JSON response for each URL
for url in all:
    #print(count)
    #print(url)
    response = requests.get(url)
    cat_responses.append(response.json())
    #print(response)
    count += 1

# Run this for a list of animals: bull, rabbit, monkey, lion, dog, pig, horse and elephant.

# Print the first dictionary for art containing a cat:
pprint.pp(cat_responses[0])
## {'objectID': 544118,
##  'isHighlight': True,
##  'accessionNumber': '56.16.1',
##  'accessionYear': '1956',
##  'isPublicDomain': True,
##  'primaryImage': 'https://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/eg/original/DP245141.jpg',
##  'primaryImageSmall': 'https://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/eg/web-large/DP245141.jpg',
##  'additionalImages': ['https://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/eg/original/DP244252.jpg'],
##  'constituents': None,
##  'department': 'Egyptian Art',
##  'objectName': 'Statuette, cat',
##  'title': 'Cat Statuette intended to contain a mummified cat',
##  'culture': '',
##  'period': 'Ptolemaic Period',
##  'dynasty': '',
##  'reign': '',
##  'portfolio': '',
##  'artistRole': '',
##  'artistPrefix': '',
##  'artistDisplayName': '',
##  'artistDisplayBio': '',
##  'artistSuffix': '',
##  'artistAlphaSort': '',
##  'artistNationality': '',
##  'artistBeginDate': '',
##  'artistEndDate': '',
##  'artistGender': '',
##  'artistWikidata_URL': '',
##  'artistULAN_URL': '',
##  'objectDate': '332–30 B.C.',
##  'objectBeginDate': -332,
##  'objectEndDate': -30,
##  'medium': 'Leaded bronze',
##  'dimensions': 'h. (including tangs) 32 cm (12 5/8 in); w. 11.9 (4 11/16 in); '
##                'd. 23.3 cm (9 3/16 in)\r\n'
##                'h. (cat alone) 27.4 cm (10 13/16 in)',
##  'measurements': [{'elementName': 'Overall',
##                    'elementDescription': None,
##                    'elementMeasurements': {'Depth': 23.3,
##                                            'Weight': 2.5,
##                                            'Width': 11.9}},
##                   {'elementName': 'Height',
##                    'elementDescription': 'cat alone',
##                    'elementMeasurements': {'Height': 27.4}},
##                   {'elementName': 'Height',
##                    'elementDescription': 'including tangs',
##                    'elementMeasurements': {'Height': 32}},
##                   {'elementName': 'Overall with mounting',
##                    'elementDescription': None,
##                    'elementMeasurements': {'Weight': 3.7}}],
##  'creditLine': 'Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1956',
##  'geographyType': 'From',
##  'city': '',
##  'state': '',
##  'county': '',
##  'country': 'Egypt',
##  'region': '',
##  'subregion': '',
##  'locale': '',
##  'locus': '',
##  'excavation': '',
##  'river': '',
##  'classification': '',
##  'rightsAndReproduction': '',
##  'linkResource': '',
##  'metadataDate': '2023-09-16T04:54:53.55Z',
##  'repository': 'Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY',
##  'objectURL': 'https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/544118',
##  'tags': [{'term': 'Cats',
##            'AAT_URL': 'http://vocab.getty.edu/page/aat/300265960',
##            'Wikidata_URL': 'https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q146'}],
##  'objectWikidata_URL': 'https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q29385765',
##  'isTimelineWork': True,
##  'GalleryNumber': '134'}
First Cat
Title: Cat Statuette intended to contain a mummified cat;
Department: Egyptian Art;
Medium: Leaded bronze;
Link to artwork.


Not all art lovers may like cats. But all cat people love art. The greatest artists of all times have shared a special affection for their feline companions. Salvador Dalí’s pet ocelot, Babou, has its own Wikipedia page. Henri Matisse’s cats, Minouche and Coussi, kept him company while he painted. Paul Klee’s cat, Bimbo, lived in his studio. Even today, the furry muses continue to inspire countless masterpieces.

After all, the market for cat paintings is lucrative. In 2015, My Life’s Lovers, a painting of 42 Turkish Angora cats posing in a luxurious home, got sold for a whopping $826,000. Such is the prominence of cats in art that a few years ago, the museum produced a documentary titled Metropolitan Cats, 1983—A History of Cats at The Met, to celebrate their cultural impact. Online fandoms, such as @catsatthemet, an instagram profile “on a mission to find EVERY SINGLE CAT that appears in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Meow!”, show how unparalleled dedication to cat art is. This level of enthusiasm is notably absent for other animals, especially dogs!


View this profile on Instagram

Cats At The Met (@catsatthemet) • Instagram photos and videos


Most cats at the museum are with the European department, followed by Asian and Modern art galleries. Horses can be spotted in Greek and Roman art, at large, while lions find portrayal in Egyptian art.

Among the museum’s celebrated artworks that feature animals, the cats and lions are present in all shapes and mediums. Most cats are oil and acrylic on canvas, followed by metal and wood based cats. Most elephants are made of organic materials such as ivory, often adorned with gilding or white gold.

The museum’s collection of cat artifacts comes from all over the world. But one in two cats finds its origins back in Egyptian culture, where the feline is divine. Cats in ancient Egypt were worshipped and mummified as spiritual beings. The MET also houses Persian, Italian and Syrian cats, countries where the animal is revered as a symbol of beauty, grace and independence.

“The smallest feline is a masterpiece”.
– Leonardo da Vinci

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